50 Shades of Drake 1 and 2

Chapter Nine

    Destiny most loved the newsroom late at night. She was usually one of the last writers to leave. There was something about the night hours that pulled the best writing from her. Maybe it was the calm of night, or lack of distractions.

    The only other writer/editor who kept late hours was Jasmine. When writers turned in their articles at the end of the week, she would spend the late hours editing the articles to determine what needed to be changed.

    Destiny tapped the end of her pencil on the top of her desk. She'd stared at a blank word processing document for the past half hour without typing one single word. As much as she tried to will thoughts of Aubrey from her mind, she couldn't. He dominated her thoughts. Spending time with him had been electrifying, and walking away from him hadn't been easy. A part of her, a pretty significant part of her, had wanted to stay and listen to what he had to say. Logic had prevailed last night. It was still difficult for her to believe that he'd interrupted their makeout session to tell her that he wasn't looking for a commitment. Alarms had gone off in her head.

    I am not the casual encounter kind of girl, she told herself.

    "You look like you're deep in thought over there," Jasmine observed, twirling a red pen between her fingers. Her desk was located across the aisle from Destiny's. For most of the night, she'd been quiet since the two of them were working on a deadline. "I didn't know articles about campus culture were that deep."

    Destiny shook her head. "I wish I was thinking about my article," she muttered. "I've been trying to focus on that topic for the past half an hour."

    Jasmine tilted her head to the side. "What is it? Jordan again?"

    She'd nearly forgotten that Jordan existed, Aubrey had been on her mind so much. Destiny shook her head and ran a hand through her hair in frustration. She gazed across the aisle at Jasmine. "Can I ask your opinion on something?"

    Jasmine leaned back in her chair and crossed one leg over the other. In contrast to Destiny's casual jeans and t-shirt, she was dressed to the nine per usual, wearing a beige and brown short-sleeved turtleneck, a beige skirt, and brown heels. "You know you can, go ahead."

    Feeling an attack of self-consciousness, Destiny stared down at her hands. "What do you think about casual sex?"

    Jasmine's eyebrows shot up. "Definitely not the question I was expecting," she said, laughing.

    "I know, it's out of the blue."

    Jasmine continued to twirl the pen in her hand as she thought. "I am a bit more open-minded than the average person," she started. "As long as two adults are up front about what they want and safe about it, I don't see anything wrong with it."

    Destiny mulled over the response.

    Jasmine narrowed her eyes. "I guess the real question is, what do you think about casual sex?"

    "I never thought it was for me," Destiny said slowly.

    "Past tense. So has that changed?" Jasmine questioned.

    Images of Aubrey clouded Destiny's mind. "I don't know."

    "Hmm." Jasmine twisted from side to side in her chair as she thought. "The thing about casual relationships is that you have to be very sure that you're only interested in sex. What tends to make these setups fail is one person wanting more from the arrangement than the other. Did someone approach you wanting a sexual relationship?"

    Destiny chewed on her bottom lip as she nodded.

    Jasmine smiled. "And you're actually considering it? Juicy."

    If you think that's juicy, you'd fall over if you knew who approached me with the arrangement, Destiny thought to herself. "I don't know...I do want more from the situation than just sex," Destiny said. "Or, at least, I'd like to explore the possibility of having something more. I associate sex with love."

    "Many women do, if not most," Jasmine said, tilting her head forward. "You just have to handle this situation with care. It's an easy way to get your heart broken if you go into the arrangement knowing that you want more than he does."

    Destiny lowered her eyes solemnly and turned back to stare at the monitor.

    A knock sounded on the closed door of the newsroom.

    Jasmine glanced at her cell phone to check the time. "It's past ten o' clock. Who would knock on the door this late?" She stood from her seat and strode down the aisle of office desks.

    Destiny attempted to return her focus on the article that had to be turned in by Monday morning. She positioned her fingers over the keyboard.

    Jasmine pulled the door open and stared, stupefied.

    "Hello. Is Destiny here?"

    Destiny frowned at the sound of the deep, male voice. She rose from her chair, looking in the direction of the newsroom door. Her heart leapt into her chest as Jasmine stepped to the side, holding the door open for the visitor. When she stepped to the side, Destiny had a better view of the tall, light-skinned, well-dressed man who'd asked for her. She was staring directly into the face of Aubrey Graham.